Ajay Chowdhury on The Road to The Waiter

A disgraced Kolkata copper working as a waiter in Brick Lane gets drawn into a web of murder and deceit. This idea had been percolating inside me for a couple of decades. One day, I heard that Harvill Secker and Bloody Scotland were running a competition for debut crime writers which meant that I might have a shot at being published. That was the motivation I needed to make me sit down and actually start typing the opening.

Like many of my generation, I’d grown up in India with Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, Perry Mason and Sherlock Holmes, however the only Indian detective I’d come across was Inspector Ganesh Ghote – H R F Keating’s marvellous creation. I liked Ghote, but he was as much of a caricature as Poirot (and famously Harry Keating didn’t even visit India until after he had written eight books about Ghote and Bombay!) So I’d always hankered after a ‘real’ Indian detective at work – someone I could see a bit of myself in, if you like.

My original idea was to have my copper come from Sylhet in Bangladesh because a lot of cooks and waiters in Indian restaurants in the UK are actually Bangladeshi and most of them hail from Sylhet. However, as I started writing, I realised I was falling into the same trap that Keating had – I’ve never been to Bangladesh. So, I switched tack and made him a Bengali from Kolkata, which I could write about with some sense of authenticity, having grown up there. 

I also needed him to have a foil and sidekick – the Watson to his Holmes (although Anjoli, his foil in the book, would NOT be happy being described as such). I was keen to have it be an ethnically Indian woman, again to explore life in Britain from a different angle. As I wrote, their chemistry grew, and she became almost as important a character in the book as Kamil, my protagonist.

So, what’s the book about? Kamil Rahman is a high flyer in the Kolkata CID when he is given his first big case to run – the murder of a major Bollywood star. As he investigates, he discovers a murky world of sleaze, corruption and politicking, and as he digs deeper, he falls foul of some powerful people and gets thrown out of the force. He moves to London to lick his wounds and the only job he can get is as a waiter in a restaurant in Brick Lane, working with the owner’s daughter Anjoli. Working a birthday party for an industrialist in Hampstead, he finds the millionaire dead in his pool and starts to investigate the death, helped by Anjoli. Slowly the strands come together and the climax leaves Kamil questioning a lot of what he believed.

The book changed a great deal as I wrote it. My original conception of it had been a light read – somewhat akin to Alexander McCall Smith’s Precious Ramotswe books. But Kamil refused to be a warm, gregarious, empathetic detective like Mma Ramotswe, instead turning out to be far more tetchy, ambitious and insecure. The book also became far darker and funnier than I had originally intended – in fact the only things that remained from my original idea was the concept of the disgraced detective as a fish out of water in London and the food that permeates the book.

And that was the other thing I wanted to do. I love cooking and eating Indian food, and really wanted to bring to life a lot of the cuisine and more unusual Indian fare that I adore. I enjoyed writing about the food that Kamil was serving and the dishes he longed for as he sat in his tiny room in cold, rainy London – missing the warmth and sun of Kolkata.

I have been incredibly lucky. Not only did I win the Harvill Secker competition and the publishing deal, they have, incredibly, bought the next two books in the series as well – The Chef and The Detective. The final cherry on the cake was BBC Studios optioning the book, so who knows, we may see Kamil and Anjoli on screen some day, serving Kashmiri Rogan Josh and Chicken Berry Pulao in Tandoori Knights.

The Waiter by Ajay Chowdhury (Vintage Publishing) Out Now 

Kamil Rahman, disgraced detective, turned waiter, is about to find himself embroiled in a case that might just change his life ... for better or for worse. Ex-detective Kamil Rahman moves from Kolkata to London to start afresh as a waiter in an Indian restaurant. But the day he caters an extravagant party for his boss's rich and powerful friend, the peace of his simple new life is shattered. The event is a success, the food is delicious, but later that evening the host, Rakesh, is found dead in his swimming pool. Suspicion falls on Rakesh's young and glamorous new wife, Neha, and Kamil is called to investigate for the family, with the help of his boss's daughter Anjoli. Kamil and Anjoli prove a winning team - but as the investigation progresses, and their relationship grows, Kamil struggles to keep memories of the case that destroyed his career in Kolkata at bay. Little does he know that his past will soon catch up with him in some very unexpected ways.

Photo credit -  Angelina Melwani 

Food for thought by Lilja Sigurðardóttir

I am a foodie. Food is important to me. I love cooking but I also love eating in restaurants so I get the chance to taste something new or feast on an old favourite dish. I think about food, I talk about food and of course I write about food. My first two crime novels should have come with a recipe chapter. My character was a good cook who, as I do, used cooking as a relaxation. I detailed all the ingredients and the methods, and readers told me that they actually cooked dishes from the books!

Snare, my book that has just been translated and published for the English-speaking world, does not have such detailed descriptions of food and I actually tried to avoid too much food talk when writing it, as I was going for a different feel in this new series. But when I got the editing suggestions from my publisher, Karen Sullivan, there were the questions: What are they eating? What is this food? Is this food you mention here a local delicacy?

I was delighted and realised that even if you don´t want to include detailed cooking instructions and recipes, food is important in a book. Especially when a book is travelling to other cultures. So I added a few lines explaining the food I have in the book: a sheep´s head that the customs officer Bragi buys ready-made in the neighbouring mini-market and fish – grilled, boiled and fried – occurs quite a lot in the series.

 

Those two things perfectly sum up Icelandic food traditions. Fish is our main food still and we believe in its health benefits, as well as generally considering it delicious in any shape or form. No one was happier with the sushi trend that started a few years back than Icelanders, as it was yet another way for us to eat our favourite food!

The seared sheep´s head is a traditional dish that middle-aged Icelanders (and older) still eat, as well as people that have been raised in the countryside. It is a rich and filling meal, that can be served either hot or cold and usually with a side of mashed potatoes. Of course it doesn´t look very appetising for those who have not been raised on it, but I really like it, although I realise it will never hit any world list of delicacies.


But I put this dish in my book for a reason. For Icelandic readers, it shows Bragi´s age and the sort of person he is. A traditional, quiet man who doesn´t engage in trends or fashion, but is happy with what he has. For the foreign readers, the sheep´s head tells a story. Until the Second World War, Icelanders were the poorest nation in Europe and through the centuries the nation suffered regular natural disasters, most often in the form of volcanic eruptions, and those were followed by hunger. The sheep was our livelihood and one of two main sources of protein and we used every single part of the animal. Throwing food away was not an option and is still frowned upon in Iceland. So just as the Slátur (a relative of Scottish Haggis), a sheep paté that is mostly fat, and the pickled ram-testicles, the sheep´s head tells a story of a nation, now rich and modernised, but still so close to its history as an exploited, hungry colony.

Snare by Lilja Sigurðardóttir Published by Orenda Books

After a messy divorce, attractive young mother Sonja is struggling to provide for herself and win sole custody of her son. With her back to the wall, she resorts to smuggling cocaine into Iceland, and finds herself caught up in a ruthless criminal world. As she desperately looks for a way out of trouble, she must pit her wits against her nemesis, Bragi, a customs officer, whose years of experience frustrate her new and evermore daring strategies. Things become even more complicated by the fact that Sonja is in a relationship with a woman, Agla. Once a high-level bank executive, Agla is currently being prosecuted in the aftermath the Icelandic financial crash.

Yashim Cooks Instanbul with Jason Goodwin

If you have ever read Jason Goodwin’s Ottoman detective series featuring Yashim the eunuch who is passionate about food then you will understand and appreciate the love of food that flows throughout the series. Jason Goodwin has parlayed all the delicious food that can be found in the series into a wonderfully written and colourful recipe book entitled Yashim Cooks Istanbul.  Yashim Cooks Istanbul is based around the 5 books in the series and is also filled with quotes from the series.

The recipes in Yashim Cooks Istanbul have been chosen with a lot of care.   They are not only very exotic and flavourful but are also satisfyingly simple to make.  Gorgeous is a word that comes to mind.

Yashim Cooks Istanbul is much more than a recipe book.  This book is perfect for fans of the series and food lovers as well, and especially those who love Turkish food. Glossy, a page-turner and with pictures to die for this is a book that you will return to time and time again.  If reading and cooking some of the recipes don’t make you want to read the series then nothing else will. 

Yashmin Cooks Istanbul by Jason Goodwin is out now published by Argonaut Books  £25.00